End of Year six of wood burning. (Well, it better end soon, at least)

Wood consumption:

• 5 cord of pine
• 6 cord of hardwood (estimated, as I am still burning, but looks to be right)

Wood consumption last year: (which was a LOT more mild than this winter)

• 12+ cord of hardwood.

Insulation success:

• Attic insulation made a huge difference for retaining heat, making windy days more tolerable, and heating the home during extreme cold temps.

Insulation needs:

• Front door: Hoping to have a new door installed this summer.
• Spring room (where the washer/dryer/boiler/water heater is located): Going to insulate the roof and spray in more foam. That room currently gets into the 40s and 30s during the winter and that air is entering the main portion of the home to some degree. I am also going to insulate the pipes in the hopes to cut down on the electricity used from the water heater (which is already wrapped in insulation). I am also going to seal up the doorway.
• Underneath flooring/foundation of the living room, dining room, and kitchen: I am looking into spray foam for underneath the flooring and I am looking into the insulation cement board that BogyDave has posted.

Wood:

• I have next years wood all set with some to spare.
• Ordering 13 cord of hardwood for future needs. If we had a more normal winter, I think my wood consumption would have been cut down buy two to three cords.
• I need to figure out a way to budget so I can bring in more wood each year to get further ahead. Goal is to get 40 cords sitting on my property split and stacked. I might hit up local landscapers and see if any of them will dump wood, from downed trees, in my driveway. If I know I have next year's wood taken care of, I can cut and split the "scrounged" wood at my leisure. I have plenty of space to store logs/bucked wood. So, we'll see what happens.

Wood Shed:

• I need to build one to hold at least a few cords. I was absolutely struggling with the ice/snow/ice/snow that I was hit with. I had to bring in wood, stand up piece in the foyer and around the stoves to thaw and dry, and then stack it into the wood holders. The process and effort to deal with ice covered wood was awful. I had to deal with it for over a month straight and I can not do that again. Tarps don't cut it.

Wood Stoves Stage III

• Going with a King/King/Woodstock Steel lineup. I think I can make a King and Steel upgrade happen by next burning season. I doubt I will be able to find a second King that meets my cost/distance needs, but I think I should be able to pick up one King this summer... I hope. The Steel will replace the Encore. The King will replace the Defiant. The 30 stays until I find another King.
• Installing the Steel will mean redoing the fireplace in the Kitchen. I plan on doing most of the work myself. I hope to avoid any surprise hurdles that this old place tends to create.

 

Good synopsis BBar.
The insulation has helped here as well. A bit easier to build house temp, and hold it.
Tarp covered wood sucks, Been there, done it, got totally fed up with it, then did something about it. Couldn't be happier about the result.
The wood shed will help tremendously.
Good luck in your quest for the perfect stove combo, too.

 

The multiple layers of snow and ice were brutal. None of it melted and stayed on the stacks for over a month. I struggled badly with it and made January and February nearly as bad as when I previously struggled to keep the house warm.

The house was warm, but the process sucked.

 

Gotta tell you, having 2 Cat stoves- (King, I.S.), + a 30 sounds wonderful. The 30 should tolerate less than ideal wood better than the others, so might be nice to have that option. Just musing. JB

 

I used to bring in ice/snow encrusted splits and stack next to the stove until they went in the stove.
Getting them dug out of the stacks was no pickynic basket.
You'll be so glad once the shed is done. Get the wood dry, put it in the shed and it just stays dry until needed.
So nice.

 

The 30 is a hell of a stove for its cost. Due to how poorly this place holds heat, I am baffled by the users that heat their entire home with the stove from the basement.

 

So you have all that work to better insulate your house, build a wood shed and maybe cut a dozen cords of wood no time for golf in your world.

 

I could literally have 25 hours a day of free time and would still not be playing golf.

 

Plural of cord is CORDS, not cord.

 

While we're at it
loose = my pants are loose
lose = sometimes I lose my mind

 

Eh. I loaded 23 tons of wood into stoves this winter. If I forget an "s", oh well.

 

Your over their taking alot of time pointing grammar issue when they're is would to be stacked.

 

Just seems to be a common error on here is all. I'm certainly not the grammar police, but that one really sticks out.

Insulated board?
Check into this:
http://www.huberwood.com/zipsystem/products/zip-system-rsheathing

My Dad had been at the plant that makes it for over 30 years.

 

I actually remember a discussion "somewhere" that talked about the plural of cord was cord at one point.

How well does it hold up to moisture and the elements? The Stuff BogyDave posted looked like it held up well to the elements (snow, ice, rain, dirt, etc).

 

That's a lot of BTUs. How much would that house cost to heat with a furnace?

 

I couldn't imagine burning that much wood a year.

 

When we were living at our old family farm for 13 years, we started out heating with 8-9 cords of hardwood and 5 tons of coal each year. The curtains would move a lot when the winds howled, and the coal furnace blower never shut off… ever. The house was a huge colonial with an el. Couldn't get enough heat out of the Fisher in the living room (it was always very hot) because there was not enough insulation. We got through it, but I couldn't do that now.

We own a basic 26'x44' ranch home now that is pretty well insulated. The Lopi Liberty in the basement drives us out of the house with temps below zero and the wind blowing. I'd like to "nice up" the area where the stove is. I love being down there watching a fire. That's why I bought a glass front stove for a basement set-up. All the dust and crud stays in the basement too… makes my bride happy. My bilco entry is right beside the stove and I plan to turn it into a firewood dump area. Gonna remove the old stairs and leave the space empty. Then, will be able to roll a firewood box into that space to dump tractor bucket loads into, coming from my wood shed. Working on it a little at a time. Gotta have a plan…

 

Ayuh… "grammar police" … ain't they annoyin? My grammar Lu used to whack me with her cane when I'd do sumthin stupid… weren't no never mind tho… and I'm a lot smahtah now any who…

 

I'm in the same position Stinny, basement stove heats 2200 SF basement and 2200 SF ranch upstairs. All the mess stays in the basement. It's a walkout basement thru the garage so all the wood is brought in that way. We can have a cord+ stored in the basement around the stove. Although sub zero temps were a bit challenging we did it. Only oil use was just once a month to make sure the boiler works. Insulating and sealing never stops though, just gets better each year.